About Me

Followers

You Are At The Archives for August 2011

Before we get started, breathe in deeply my friends. Can you smell it? Can you smell the sweet and glorious scents of apple pie, caramel, and cinnamon? Can you feel the crisp breeze and hear the crunch of colorful dried leaves? OK OK, I've been drinking caramel lattes and found an apple cinnamon air filter in the back of my closet. But you can't deny it, fall is in the air.

So I've gone from being college girl to working girl. In the past when I heard "working girl," I always thought Hilary suits paired with white socks and walking orthopedic sneakers or well... a lady of the night. But that's not me, I'm not a mall walker and I haven't completely given up on life yet.

It's not that I've never had a job in my life. I've had quite a few actually, and they've all had their interesting tid bits and quirks. Like when I worked in that crafting supply store and had to memorize the all the sale items for the week. My favorite part was all the religious pamphlets I received from customers in prairie dresses on how my soul was weeping or the dangers of living a life of disobedience. Strangely, I was the only employee to receive these. Must be the reddish hair.

I never really thought about working. Which is probably not good considering I spent the last seven years trying to study my way into employment. Not such a bad way to spend seven years. I mean, I could have spent it chasing the dragon or filling my body with poorly drawn unicorn tattoos.

The best part about having a job, besides the ability to buy a toothpaste and no longer having to contemplate if a spit bath is a real thing, is the new found camaraderie I've found with other employed persons. You get to listen to stories about people's pets/kids/fishing trips, have hearty belly laughs about activities planned for days off, and best of all, listen to forced conversations about the weather.

This post makes me wish I kept one of those creepy diaries that documents every minute and every detail, of every day (I know you people are out there with your closets full of weird notebooks), but I don't like diaries. While I do love The Notebook (explanation: I'm a girl, Josh Gosling),

I haven't had a love affair worth recording and frankly, I do a lot of things I hope to immediately forget.

But I digress, this is a reflection on the last year living in a 240 square foot apartment and the beginning of a new life in yet another city.

Let's begin with living in this apartment, the center of this blog. It hasn't been easy. I've never lived in such a tiny space for such a long duration of time. Have I kept my sanity? What little I started out with, probably (it's not like I think there is a little man living in my head with a pick axe, whistling dwarf tunes, slowly chipping away at my sanity). I've never had a problem with claustrophobia before, but some days it does feel like the walls are suffocating me and I just have to get out for awhile. I thought of a good simile for claustrophobia, but during editing found it a little heartless.

give it a rest

When I left Kansas I made an oath... well, to summarize: to stay single for a year. It might surprise you but since I was eighteen, I've either been in a relationship or dating someone, never staying single for more than a month or two. So, how did this year go? Unfortunately, it was incredibly easy to stay single (besides one little, tiny, three week long, snafu... but let's just ignore that one...).

Fun Fact! Parking tickets: over 20. Preposterous? Not exactly.

No, this doesn't make me (or my parents) proud.

Something that does make me proud? My new emerging sense of direction. I haven't been lost since that time I went to the art fair and had to circle the capital three times before I found the street I live on (OK OK, this happened a few weeks ago, I was on foot, and yes, I only live three blocks from the capitol. But that doesn't mean it isn't completely confusing, disorienting, and could happen to anyone).

labyrinth

Nevertheless, over the last year I think I've done some growing. Luckily because I've been exercising, it hasn't all been in my pant size but rather a growth in a more philosophical way. Or like smarts and stuff. I'm not too vain that I can't admit to some mistakes. But as I reflect on the last year, I didn't think there would be so many. Someday I'm sure I'll sit down, evaluate my poor but consistent choices, and listen to MJ's Man in the Mirror.

But for now, as a quick fix, here is a list of what I learned in the past year and my advice to anyone who might need it (...pretty much if you've read this far, that means you):

• Don't sign up for a free online dating website (Hint: it starts with OK and ends with Cupid.) No matter how much fun your friends say it's going to be, you'll find yourself shocked by graphic and crude propositions and left finding a new favorite coffee shop because one of them came from a much older barista with a memory for faces.

• Eating chili on a hot summer day, bad idea. Eating chili on a hot summer day then going out for a run, worse idea.

• Just because it's adorable and has big brown eyes doesn't mean it should live in your apartment.

• Some people love peanut butter on bread. Others love peanut butter so much that they'll scoop it out of a jar, in a store, with their grimy, heathen fingers.

• Haters love to hate.

Throughout the past year, I've had some trying times, made new friends, witnessed bizarre behavior, started new hobbies, and made my fair share of mistakes with a few minor triumphs sprinkled in to make getting out of bed everyday feasible. I haven't decided yet if moving to Madison was a good decision for me, but it's definitely given me a new prospective on life and a few good stories to make my life seem interesting.

So here's to you: the city of Madison for not completely crushing my spirit, my "cozy" apartment for giving me shelter and not snipping those last strands of sanity, and to the all readers I've accumulated over the last year with this blog. It's been a quite a year. Let's dig deep and make it through another.